Red Pill | Blue Pill

Morpheus: "I imagine that right now you're feeling a little like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit-hole… I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees, because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth… Let me tell you why you are here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But, you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Neo: "The Matrix?"

Morpheus: "Do you want to know what it is?"

Neo:{nods}

Morpheus: "The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when you go to church, or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth."

Neo: "What truth?"

Morpheus: "That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. {Produces a box containing two colored pills, one blue and one red}. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you awake in your bed, and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

I never tire of the Matrix allegory. Sorry to all those of you that read this blog and may think I'm overdoing it...but it's such a perfect metaphor for the reality of life versus the distorted projection of life portrayed by our corporate media and government/educational institution-designed matrix.

As columnist Lorie Kramer wrote , the media is the matrix. This is precisely why Nancy Levant's columns are full of references to "tell-a-vision." The corporate commercialization of science and the emergence of mass media influence combined with institutional reinforcement -- aka the Government-Media-Education complex --has lead to our modern day existence of the masses of people mindlessly following along with the messages of "conventional wisdom" that everyone "just knows."

How many times have you encountered a person that seeks to share some knowledge with you, prefaced by the statement "They say..."

Who's "they?"

The nameless, faceless entity of "conventional wisdom."

Deliberately mis-formed disinformation to benefit the bottom line of the propagators of these deceptions.